Two weeks ago I adopted a sweetheart of a German Shepherd mix. She was so affectionate, intelligent, and eager to please. But, as time went by, she became territorial over my house and my son. He snapped at my sweet little five year old neighbor girl who was doing nothing wrong. Later he charged my son's friend. When I leashed the dog and held him, he growled and snapped at the boy who was, again, doing nothing wrong. So I had to return him to the shelter. Broke my heart. So today we went to look at dogs again. We filled out the survey and were interviewed and then they led us to a selection of dogs to look at. Our two favorites - based on their level of affection and calm confident behavior - were German Shepherd mixes. The shelter believes, based on what we told them, and I told them everything, that these dogs are appropriate for us. But while both dogs seemed great, I'm concerned. So tell me your German Shepherd stories. Can they be good family dogs?

The Scarlet Pimpernel was hands down the best reader. All of the rest are good stories with uneven readers. Worth the trouble. They are free :) I also liked Scaramouche and Captain Blood. I'm currently listening to War of the Worlds. I listed recently to White Fang and Call of the Wild, and the short story How to Build a Fire Some Sherlock Holmes, Father Brown, and Miss Marple For History I listened to Our Island Story, Story of the Middle Ages, and Dicken's Child's History of England. I liked Our Island Story the most. My son's favorite has been Wind and the Willows I listed to Poems Every Child Should Know, and it was just hard to get through. I often download poems I like, though. They'll often have different readers reading the same poem, and it's fun to compare. Jabberwocky, but Alan Davis Drake is fantastic.

I've stayed at that Country Inn. Most years I meet my two sisters and two nieces there for our "Sister's weekend". It has a country theme that's so over the top it works. My Mom, who is defensive about Iowa's image, calls it the cow hotel. But the pool is nice. It's roomy, with big pubic areas for overflow, and free breakfast. We had two double beds and a fold-out couch, all in use. There are good restaurants right nearby. And not too far from there you'll find a Borders AND a Barnes and Noble ACROSS from each other!

Yes, this one Asus eepc And we all like it. It would be a terrible main computer for an adult, but it's fine for a kid. It's nice to be able to grab it and use it anywhere in the house. It is a whole new kind of portable, since it has no hard drive (only flash memory), long battery life, and is tiny. My son is a lot more interested in writing on his own since we got it. It is terrible for games, and that's a bonus as far as I'm concerned. I don't want a game machine in the school room. It is on the internet, but all of the computers have heavy filters. And it's cheap.

Canterbury tales Politics of Aristotle I'm just creeping along on both of these - only a few pages a day. I try to keep one imaginative and one, what?, didactic? book going all of the time. (I could just say fiction and non-fiction, I suppose.) I have also been reading the Boorstin Discoverers/Creators/Seekers trilogy. I finished Discoverers and am about halfway through Creators and Seekers. These are awesome - a liberal education in themselves. I'm "reading" Jack London on my mp3 player as I run. I listened to To Build a Fire this morning, for a second time. If you read only one Jack London story, make it this one. If you read or watch "Into the Wild", a book I also liked, then read "To Build a Fire", too. It's interesting to think of that poor, tragic kid being a Jack London fan, having probably read this, his most famous short story, then hopping out of a local oldtimer's truck and, against his advice, walking so ill-prepared into the Alaskan wilderness. Read aloud is Peter and the Secret of Rundoon. We just finished True Grit. The book was good, and the movie was pretty faithful to the book. The movie was actually better.

Having done a year of Latin, and being one who likes to learn from books, my Spanish studies haven't been that different for me. Reading and writing Spanish are not unfamiliar exercises. But listening to native speakers and speaking Spanish at a fluent speed is a whole different skill. And I have a good idea that the Mastering Spanish cds can get me there. It requires a lot more time than I figured when I bought them. Which means that there's more for my money than I expected. They include many, many little exercises that get you comfortable with listening to and speaking the language. The first time I heard a dialogue, they were so fast and fluid that I had no idea what they were saying. But with the help of the included (and needed!) book, and the exercises, I've been able to get to where I can not only understand them, but respond at their speed. Mastering Spanish is, I understand, very similar to FSI Basic Spanish and Platiquemos. I WANT to learn Spanish, so I don't mind the exercises. I'm not sure that a high school kid wouldn't rebel - they are very repetitive drills. But I do recommend them if you can handle the repetition. Or, frankly, need it as I do.

That one looks interesting. I picked up these two: Spanish Grammar for Independent Learners and Spanish Verbs and Essentials of Grammar Of these, I get the most use from the second one. My expectations of a grammar book are from Henle. Henle Book One is an exercise book, with nice explanations. But Henle Grammar is just the facts. All of the pronouns, declensions, and conjugations are in the Grammar book. You use Henle Grammar for all four Henle exercise books. For Spanish, my Madrigal book corresponds to Henle Book One and Spanish Verbs and Essentials of Grammar corresponds to Henle Grammar. It's short - only 125 pages. It gives only the facts and a few examples. No exercises. It and my dictionary are always handy when I do any Spanish. Spanish Grammar for Independent Learners is a lot meatier. I'm sure, down the road, I'll use it more. But for right now, it's more information I need, and I was having too much trouble wading through it trying to find the little bit I am able to understand at this point :) I hit Madrigal lesson 26 today. As I expected, it's taking a lot longer to do an exercise. When I started, I was able to do an exercise in fifteen to twenty minutes. Today took about forty-five. I'm more and more pleased with Mastering Spanish. I'll discuss it a bit more tomorrow.

About How to Learn Any Language... My good friend Jamie recommended this book to me. I had seen it at Barnes and Noble, and had hoped it was a book about how languages work, about linguistics. It is not. It IS a fun read. It is a lot about the author's own history in learning languages. That part is not necessary, but it is fun. This takes a good bit of a slight book. The system itself is pretty straightforward. It recommends learning a bit of grammar - five chapters of a grammar book - then getting a dictionary and a newspaper and busting into it. (My impression is that by "grammar book", he means something like a high school text book.) If you don't know a word, write it on a flashcard and carry that sucker around until you know it. At the same time, keep up with your grammar book. It also recommends an audio system with a LOT of tapes. And a phrase book. And finding native speakers and taking every opportunity to practice and ask them questions. But his idea of translating something real right off the bat is what is most unique about his approach. The book is inspiring. If you're learning a modern language, read it for fun, at least. I've misapplied the system. I didn't have a Spanish paper, and I'm not interested in reading a Spanish paper, anyway. So I picked up the novel "Zorro", by Isabelle Allende. Problem - Zorro is written at way too high a level for me. The sentences and the paragraphs are long and complicated. It takes me an hour to translate a paragraph, and at that I have only a fair sense of what is going on. I'm putting it away until I'm further along. I'd like to continue with the system, though. Happily, there is a children's version of Zorro, adapted from the novel :) I have ordered the Spanish and English versions, and I plan to try that. I've also found Spanish Wikipedia. It's more likely written at the level of a newspaper. I haven't done anything with it, yet. http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portada My main resources remain Madrigal, Mastering Spanish, and Mnemosyne, but this could be a neat little project to practice on.

A big help for me in learning my grammar and especially my vocabulary is my flashcard program, Mnemosyne. But first I had to learn to type my vocabulary. I have Windows XP. I followed the instructions on this web site: http://www.studyspanish.com/accents/typing.htm and now I have the option of setting my keyboard up as United States-International. This allows me to type accents, tildes, and the cute upside-down punctuation (what IS up with that?) This also lead me to the solution of a problem I've been trying to figure out every since we started Latin - how to do macrons. Follow the same instructions, but choose the Maori keyboard. Apparently, the Maori language uses macrons. With the Maori keyboard chosen, you add a macron by hitting the tilde button before typing the vowel. One little note: With the International keyboard you type a ñ by hitting the shift-tilde, then an n. With the Maori keyboard, you just hit the tilde button, without the shift, before you type the vowel. With Windows XP it is very simple to switch between keyboards during the coarse of the day once you've added a different keyboard definition. A little keyboard icon is added to the bottom of my screen, and I hit it to change keyboard definitions. Sorry if this explanation is a little confusing to follow. I found the Learn Spanish website instructions very clear.

I was going to post all that, but I can't find the blessed thing right now! I'll check my librarything... here ya' go. http://www.librarything.com/work/7586/book/30912597

I've been working on Spanish for about a month. Much of that has been researching how the heck I was going to do this. I've figured out a few things I'd like to share, made some progress, and been completely flummoxed more than once. In the past, on a different site, I had an exercise log, in which I posted my training progress and others jumped in to encourage me and give advice. Here, I plan to keep a log of my progress on Spanish. So welcome to my log. I recently read How to Learn any Language, and found it inspiring. I'll talk a bit about it in the future. I've had about a year of Latin. I've used Henle, and I've nearly made it through Unit 7. This has been helpful. I plan to keep up my Henle as well, so I may mention it from time to time. My main text is Madrigal's Magic Key to Spanish. It was published in 1951. There are 44 lessons, and I just completed lesson 23. The lessons appear to get harder as you go along, so I probably won't keep up at this pace. I like the book a lot. It's written for autodidacts. It's casual and fun. A few things have changed in Spanish since 1951, but this is not my only resource, so I'm not too worried. I also have the first set of Barron's Mastering Spanish CDs. They're full of drills. This works for me, because my 45 year old brain needs a lot of help, but I wouldn't recommend them for someone with a halfway decent memory. In the fall I plan to start So You Really Want to Learn Spanish with my ten year old son. I've done the first unit, and I plan to pick it up from time to time over the summer. My very favorite resource is Mnemosyne, a flashcard program. I use it every day. I am building flashcard sets for my son and I that I plan to share in the future. I don't know if I'll post here every day, but I hope to add to this thread regularly. Tomorrow I plan to talk about how I got my keyboard to type mācrons, áccents, and tildes(ñ). Dee

Henle 1, Henle Grammar, and the Henle 1 answer key.

My Real Life friend Hilary teaches her boys Chinese. She just left for an extended trip, but she's posted on this in the past. In fact, this whole thread is good: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showpost.php?p=245815&postcount=10

I wanted to add what How to Learn Any Language, by Fabor, has to say about both languanges: French: After English, French is the world's most popular second language. French lies in the middle range of difficulty to learn. The grammar is mercifully simple, but correct pronunciation with a decent French accent is hard to achieve. Spanish: A natural second language for Americans. Easier for Americans to speak good Spanish than good French. A more phonetic language. Not as many silent letters. Correct Spanish pronunciation is less difficult. Grammar is similar to French.

I had planned to do French because I had some French in high school and college (though I don't remember much of anything), and because in my own reading I come across French more. However, my husband suddenly came out with a surprise preference that we do Spanish. We have Spanish speaking neighbors and his niece, who lives a couple of miles awy, is an elementary school Spanish teacher and my nephew is in school with a Spanish education major. I'm starting Spanish this summer, using Galore Park among other things. My son will start with Galore Park in the fall. Now that I've started, I'm kind of excited about it. I think we have a better chance of becoming something like fluent with Spanish TV and radio and our other resources. I still want my French back, so I plan to get to a reading level on my own in the future.

Sorry, I posted my list before I read this :)

Jabberwocky, by Lewis Carroll (check the librivox.org recordings by Alan Davis Drake) Daddy Fell Into the Pond by Alfred Noyes Godfrey Gorden Gustavus Gore by William Brighty Rands The Duke of Plaza-Toro by W. S. Gilbert From a Railway Carriage by Robert Lewis Stephenson Rebecca, who Slammed Doors For Fun and Perished Miserable by Hilaire Belloc The Yak by Hilaire Belloc Jonathan Bing by Beatruce Curtis Brown The Swan and the Goose, by William Ellory Leonard Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost Most of these re from Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization. The one we HATED - Trees, by Joyce Kilmer.

For great books, I have several resources. My favorites are Joy of Reading by Van Doren and the first edition of Lifetime Reading Plan by Fadiman. I also have secondary literature on the big authors like Plato, Aristotle, Dante, and Chaucer. We're just completing our fourth year of classical homeschooling. Each year I've read a detailed history of the period my son is studying, as well as biographies and anything other history that catches my interest. I always have a history book going. For Latin I am using Henle. I am just starting Spanish, and will be using Galore Park So You.... I recently read "How to Learn Any Language", and I realize that I'll have to use several resources for modern languages to become truly fluent. This isn't really necessary to be a homeschool teacher, but I do enjoy it.

Many of these are available at librivox.org Sherlock Holmes G. K. Chesterton's Father Brown series

Priority one: Great books. I always have one going. I may only do ten pages I day, but I spend some time each day. Currently Canterbury Tales. I often start with a children's version of whatever I'm reading. I also read some secondary literature. Priority two: I am working through poetry, philosophy and art through history. I have art up through the renaissance and poetry through the middle ages. I'm trying to catch philosophy up, but I alternate between the three depending on my mood. Again, this may only be a few pages a day. Priority three: Some history every day. I've completed a survey of each major period. Now I'm reading history of science. I really enjoy this. Priority four: Some language every day. I've worked through about half of Henle Latin and now I'm starting Spanish. This is, by the way, too much :) Exercise needs to be a higher priority. So does cleaning house and cooking. And laundry. :)

A Study in Scarlet is long, but it introduces the characters well.

Zaner Bloser has a book called something like "Self Instruction in Handwriting". I think you can only get it from their web-site. I used it myself over a summer. It improved my handwriting considerably.

We got The Complete Book of United States History at Sams Club. (It's also available at Amazon for the same price.) It's been a comfortable read-aloud with some interesting, light activities. We did half of it last year, in the third year of the history rotation, and finished it this year.

We're reading Escape from Warsaw right now. (It was originally titled "The Silver Sword".) It is about a family of children who travel to Warsaw near the end of WWII to find their parents. The tone is just right for my slightly sensitive ten year old. It's serious, but not dreadful. He wouldn't be ready for Anne Frank, for example.

Thank you. That sounds like the perfect approach. :)